Have you looked on www.bladesmithsforum.com ? You should make an account there; it's quite a bit larger than this forum even.

I know that Ed Caffrey has or had a vent hood over 2 gas forges in his shop. During the filming of his basic knife forging video. That was some time back though. His setup may have changed since then.

I just registered over at bladesmithsforum.com and I'll put up a post there. I've searched it before with not a lot of cohesive design strategies to pull from. LOL you'd think there'd be information all over the net about venting. I guess that venting is kind of a "You're on your own" project as not many people would want to feel responsible for giving out designs that could end up killing the recipient if they fail. Understandable.

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I've read through posts here and everywhere else on the net but haven't really seen a definitive plan for venting a propane forge indoors. My bladesmithing is getting to the point where I need to be able to forge year round and with temps here in Wyoming dropping to sub zero multiple times throughout the winter, moving the operation indoors seems necessary. I'm open to any suggestions, pics of your set ups, etc. Thanks!

Darrell my shop is far from air tight ........when I "forge up" in the winter and summer for that matter I open the front door and the back door ....usually a nice easy breeze flows through but if not I have a big upright fan that keeps steady air flow on the move.....works great.....as for a hoody vent system , no not here

I'm also very interested in seeing what anyone else has done for a vent hood. I can't get enough air flow through my shop to mitigate the heat from the forge. This old man is starting to have trouble dealing with the heat. I drew up plans for a hood just last week, to get an estimate on having a sheet-metal shop build it for me.

The one thing that I can't get a handle on, is what size to make the stack to take the heat out the roof of the shop. There are too many unknown variables to calculate the efficiency of relying on thermal convection to get the heat to go up the stack. Though, anything would be better than what I have now. I have considered installing an in duct fan, or a draft inducing fan like is made for wood stoves.

I did quite a bit of research on forge vents prior to building my coal forge. Anvil Fire has a lot of good information. Basically the rule of thumb is 8-12" stove pipe. Just about every artical I read on the subject made a point to make sure the pipe extends at least 4' above the highest point of the roof. I built a Super Sucker side draft that has an 10" square opening that sits beside the fire pot. I also used 10" single wall stove pipe for the chimney. Most plans recommended 12". The chimney extends 4' above the peak of the roof. It is constanly sucking air, even when not using the forge. When I'm forging with coal, it acutually sucks small pieces of coal into the mouth of the Super Sucker.

I don't see why a hooded vent with 10" chimney extended 4' above the roof peak wouldn't remove the heat from our propane forges. You might have to play with the height of the hood above the forge to obtain the best draft.

Hope this helps!

Bob